I finally released Sphoxie on PC / Steam

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > I finally released Sphoxie on PC / Steam

Mister Anarchy: Feb 19, 2007; Shit, they're not even starfish - LOOK AT THEIR EYES

Hello everybody!

Some of you may remember me from either the hats or the scary starfish from Bizango Blast or even the iOS version of Sphoxie. I know it's been many years but I kept chipping away at it slowly but surely and finally I have released Sphoxie for the PC. It should have always been a PC game because touch controls can't do this kind of game any justice. The reason it took so long was because life got in the way, I started new jobs that were draining and would use my vacation time as to make progress.

Anyway what is Sphoxie?

It's a physics based rolling ball game, in it you take control of the little dude and must navigate all the 27 levels to make it home.

Words don't really help with explaining it so check out this little trailer I made for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FntE6dCC-qo

Check out the steam page for screen shots:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/486430/Sphoxie/

If you're curious about gamedev or as to how I made Sphoxie, here's a play list of the development video blogs, I'll eventually make a post mortem over the weekend to talk about the aftermath of it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIe2OX2LZJU&list=PL-Zz89LxHGBWNQAtr-Fmy5JYz1CBLtKZe

I would like to thank Epic Games for making an amazing engine available to just anyone willing to put the time and effort to get something done.

I hope you give Sphoxie a shot and I'm open to all kinds of feedback!

Also for my next game I'll be remaking Bizango Blast for the PC in the Unreal Engine 4 and I would like to add a dueling multiplayer mode to it where you have to gently caress the other player's poo poo up before they wreck yours. It could be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

EDIT: I just requested 10 Steam keys, first 10 PMs asking for them get them to provide some feedback!

Mister Anarchy fucked around with this message at 18:30 on May 18, 2018

# ? May 18, 2018 17:49

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# ? Apr 16, 2024 20:39

Mister Anarchy: Feb 19, 2007; Shit, they're not even starfish - LOOK AT THEIR EYES

Here are two steam keys for those who want to try it out and leave some feedback

XZRHR-3NQ40-04EW4
JBE09-AGPDF-IWZCA

# ? May 18, 2018 19:24

Herr Tog: Jun 18, 2011; Grimey Drawer

good for you for releasing a game!

# ? May 20, 2018 06:20

Mister Anarchy: Feb 19, 2007; Shit, they're not even starfish - LOOK AT THEIR EYES

Herr Tog posted:

good for you for releasing a game!

Thanks!

I've given three codes away to Goons so far, if anyone else is interested send me a PM!

# ? May 25, 2018 10:32

Redeye Flight: Mar 26, 2010; God, I'm so tired. What the hell did I post last night?

E: Actually, you don't have to give me a free code, it's just four bucks. I'll support a project!

I really hope this does well for you, man!

Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 07:39 on May 30, 2018

# ? May 25, 2018 19:36

dirby: Sep 21, 2004; Helping goons with math

I bought the game through a banner ad and had some issues/bugs, so I posted on the Steam forum for the game (as did someone else). I didn't get any response after several days, and couldn't find a way to email you anywhere online (despite finding a couple websites related to you), so I assumed there was no way to contact the dev. I didn't want to leave a negative review, but thought there might be no other way to contact you. So I was just about to leave a negative review and request a refund through Steam, when someone thankfully told me about this thread, so I'm posting here instead.

In increasing order of bug-likeness, here are the issues I recall when I tried the game out:

I thought there was no way to contact you about issues. See above.
I wish the game would have told me explicitly that you can't move in the air. So many similar games let you move in the air, so this was jarring and I thought this was a bug before I figured out that it was just how the game works.
The turning radius is so large and the camera often seems to move a bit too little or too much, that I found it hard to control.
I'm not certain (because things moved so fast), but I may have run into the same issues as "Papaya Pig" where the ball would bump randomly on things that weren't there.
In an early level (3?) there was a pair of platforms that moved back and forth, and when I died the first time it seemed to mess up the synchronized timing, but I think I was still able to rush across when the gap was small.
In an early level (the same one?) there was a moving platform that was no longer moving after a death, making the level impossible to complete without backing out.

# ? May 27, 2018 15:04

Iacen: Mar 19, 2009; Si vis pacem, para bellum

Hi guy! I played Sphoxie way back when on iOS. Well done for continuing!

I just wanna ask you, that if you do remake Bizango, please do something about the creepy starfish. Other than that, continue your work. I wish I had that kind of drive.

# ? May 28, 2018 08:17

Mister Anarchy: Feb 19, 2007; Shit, they're not even starfish - LOOK AT THEIR EYES

Redeye Flight posted:

E: Actually, you don't have to give me a free code, it's just four bucks. I'll support a project!

I really hope this does well for you, man!

Thank you! There's a new update out that fixes all the control issues so if you where having troubles before give it another shot

dirby posted:

I bought the game through a banner ad and had some issues/bugs, so I posted on the Steam forum for the game (as did someone else). I didn't get any response after several days, and couldn't find a way to email you anywhere online (despite finding a couple websites related to you), so I assumed there was no way to contact the dev. I didn't want to leave a negative review, but thought there might be no other way to contact you. So I was just about to leave a negative review and request a refund through Steam, when someone thankfully told me about this thread, so I'm posting here instead.

In increasing order of bug-likeness, here are the issues I recall when I tried the game out:

I thought there was no way to contact you about issues. See above.

I wish the game would have told me explicitly that you can't move in the air. So many similar games let you move in the air, so this was jarring and I thought this was a bug before I figured out that it was just how the game works.

The turning radius is so large and the camera often seems to move a bit too little or too much, that I found it hard to control.

I'm not certain (because things moved so fast), but I may have run into the same issues as "Papaya Pig" where the ball would bump randomly on things that weren't there.

In an early level (3?) there was a pair of platforms that moved back and forth, and when I died the first time it seemed to mess up the synchronized timing, but I think I was still able to rush across when the gap was small.

In an early level (the same one?) there was a moving platform that was no longer moving after a death, making the level impossible to complete without backing out.

Hey sorry about the difficulty in getting in contact, there was a lot of drama at my real job but now everything is clear. I managed to get a few days of working in an update that I released today, it should really make the controls a lot better, less jumpy and jolty, that was a bug in my math but it's all resolved now (hopefully). Are you playing with a controller and keyboard?

If you're still having trouble with the platforms let me know, I've tried getting them to get stuck with no success, I watched two play testers play those levels without issues is there anything specific that triggers the platforms to freeze if you can recall?

Thank you for taking the time to play!

Iacen posted:

Hi guy! I played Sphoxie way back when on iOS. Well done for continuing!

I just wanna ask you, that if you do remake Bizango, please do something about the creepy starfish. Other than that, continue your work. I wish I had that kind of drive.

Thanks man, Sphoxie iOS should get a free update to the next engine when I can find a Mac to compile it to mobile. Apple is making it harder now. I'll try to come up with some more charming characters for Bizango Blast redux.

# ? May 31, 2018 15:36